User Experience · Currently the Director of UX at University of Maryland
I'm Zaida, a design lead focused on user experience based in the DC metro.
Portfolio
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Approach
I lead UX for organizations where design has to work at scale — non-profits, higher education, and major media. My work centers on UX strategy, design systems, and building practices that empower small teams to deliver. I'm a hands-on lead: still in Figma and still in the code.
Team leadership and roadmap development — manage designers on a 9-person digital team; set the UX roadmap across 40 properties
Design systems and web components — built UMD's first design system, now powering 50+ sites; 400% faster to stand up a new site
Accessibility — work with executive director of web services to help ensure WCAG 2.1 AA conformance across our unit's portfolio of sites
AI in the design workflow — use AI for rapid prototyping and to generate and maintain design system documentation








